Jerry Hughes primed for monster season as Bills return to 4-3 defense

One of the happiest campers on the Buffalo Bills’ roster heading into the 2017 season has to be defensive end Jerry Hughes. After struggling for much of his last two seasons while playing in former head coach Rex Ryan’s 3-4 defensive front, Hughes will return to doing what he does best in new coach Sean McDermott’s 4-3 front – putting his hand in the dirt and launching himself at opposing quarterbacks.

Hughes made little effort to hide his displeasure with Ryan’s scheme. He was frequently forced drop into pass coverage as an outside linebacker – a task that isn’t exactly ideal for a player that’s paid to run forwards, not backward. Despite essentially serving as a square peg forced into a round hole, Hughes made the best of his situation.

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Pro Football Focus highlighted the sharp decline in Hughes’ production Hughes’ production after playing under the Bills’ previous defensive coordinators Mike Pettine and Jim Schwartz as opposed to his two years with Ryan calling the shots.

Hughes’ pass rush productivity was much better when he was in a 4-3 scheme. Hughes’ PRP (Pass Rush Productivity) in 2013 and 2014 was 15.4 and 10.5 respectively, creating 120 total pressures for a combined 23 sacks in those seasons, compared to PRP marks of 8.4 and 9.2 for 109 total pressures and 10 sacks the two seasons since (PRP measures pressure created on a per snap basis with weighting towards sacks).

Even though the Bills played a lot of 3-4 fronts under Pettine, they primarily used Over or Under fronts- a hybrid alignment that combined concepts from both the 4-3 and 3-4. Under Schwartz, Hughes thrived as well. Both coaches understood the need for building the scheme around player strengths rather than trying to force a player into a role they aren’t suited for in terms of a proper use of their skill set.

Now Hughes is set to thrive, especially with defensive end Shaq Lawson ready to explode on the other side of the defensive line. Additionally, Buffalo has two dominant defensive tackles in Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus, who are each best suited for McDermott’s one-gap scheme where each will see significant snaps at the three-technique (between the guard and tackle).

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Hughes has the speed and power to wreak havoc on opposing offensive tackles and can even require a tight end to stay in-line to provide help once he gets in a groove. Opposing offensive coordinators and quarterbacks will now be focused on simply stopping Hughes and Buffalo’s front four, rather than trying to identify where a blitz will be coming from and find their hot route, as they were able to do when facing a Ryan-led defense.

No one knows more about moving around positions on defense more than outside linebacker Lorenzo Alexander. On a recent Bills Wire podcast, Alexander explained why he thinks Hughes will have a monster season in McDermott and Frazier’s scheme.

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“I think Jerry (Hughes) and Shaq (Lawson) are more hand in the dirt type of guys that love to rush and are more, true defensive ends. That transition (to linebacker) is hard, and even though they can do it, it takes time. But that transition is hard and in the NFL, you don’t have to through every look and everything each week to get a guy comfortable where he’s fully ready to go out and produce,” Alexander said.

Despite the significant loss of starters on the defensive side of the ball during the offseason, expect Hughes to bounce back in a big way this fall. Stay tuned, because as productive as he’s been in the past, the best may have yet to come from Hughes.